"We will continue to increase visibility on pay equity." According to Kotick, women at ABK actually earned slightly more than men in comparable positions, and ABK will report such numbers annually.ĥ. "Based on feedback from employees, we are waiving required arbitration of sexual harassment and discrimination claims." A key point in workers' demands for "A Better ABK," forced arbitration will no longer be required in such cases.Ĥ. The quarter of a billion dollars will be invested over the next 10 years and will include programs already in place, such as ABK Academy, and new initiatives.ģ.
"We will increase the percentage of women and non-binary people in our workforce by 50% and will invest $250 million to accelerate opportunities for diverse talent." Kotick said that approximately 23% of its global workforce identifies as female or non-binary. As previously reported, 20 employees have been let go from the company over the past few months, but 20 were also "reprimanded" after investigations, which seems to contradict this new policy.Ģ. Going forward, such claims, if found to be substantiated by an investigative process, will result in termination of the offender. "We are launching a new zero-tolerance harassment policy company-wide." Kotick said that warnings were sometimes issued in the past for harassment complaints.
Following the usual multi-paragraph letter containing stock terms such as "a tremendously challenging time," "the guardrails weren't in place," and a necessary apology ("I am truly sorry"), he detailed five changes that his company was going to make:ġ.
Activision Blizzard King CEO Bobby Kotick has issued a statement to workers and the public addressing at length the harassment allegations at Blizzard and what his company plans to do about the situation going forward.